NSA nominee unknown to privacy advocates

Vice Admiral Mike Rogers, President Obama’s nominee to take over the helm of the National Security Agency (NSA), is mostly a stranger to privacy and civil liberties advocates.

They say that Vice Admiral Rogers will have a lot of work ahead as he takes over for Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA’s current chief, during a period of dramatic changes to soothe concerns about the agency’s snooping on millions of Americans. Vice Admiral Rogers has spent more than 30 years in the Navy, and is an expert in cryptology. Since 2011, he has led the US Cyber Fleet, the Navy’s cyber command. Before that, he served as the director of intelligence for both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Pacific Command. As NSA director, Vice Admiral Rogers will also be taking over the US Cyber Command. “He’s probably in the more traditional role of the director of the NSA, to be less of a public figure. It’s only in the last few years really that people like Alexander and [former Director Michael] Hayden have emerged in a very prominent way,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said. “In that respect, the selection is not that surprising. But our focus really is on the changes ahead, and I think that’s likely the question that he’s going to be facing,” Rotenberg said.